Simulated Wills
by RockBane
Summary: There's a Curse on the Arcobaleno pacifiers, it shrinks the holders down into the form of babies while harvesting their Flames. The Tri-ni-set is all connected, those Flames harvested as the result of the Curse... Is it any wonder at the misery and pain are so prevalent in the underworld that is the world of organize crime?


I don't own Kateyou Hitman Reborn!

* * *

Jogging at a steady pace, Kaito does his best to ignore the battle going on behind him. _Don't look, don't look, don't look._ The ten year old mentally chants, moving through the previously damaged street with sounds of the pair of out of control Box Animals rage behind him, their owners likely fighting a few blocks over.

He's hardly the only one that's racing away from the sight, although he might be the only one to actually **See** the Flames that seem to cling to the Box Animals' bodies. The two Flame critters had sported bright yellow fire covering them, Kaito isn't sure why the Flames of the Box Animals matter nor why humans even possess the ability to call upon those colorful Flames. Names aren't going to help him run away from the Flame enshrouded Gigantic Crab nor the Giant Rhino.

There's bellows of outrage and screams of fright as the two Box Animals seem far more concerned with attacking one another then the various buildings, vehicles, and bystanders. Alarms have been going off back when he'd been at the library, the only real warning that he really heeded along with the others within the library. _Don't look, don't look, don't look._

Something gets sent flying and drops rather hard within an already small crater on the street. There's a spray sign meaning that there's a shelter coming up in another two blocks. Hitching his back pack up, the ten year old veers around the rubble and the trenches that have been scratched into the street. There's more energy in his step at the promise of safety coming up.

The sounds of the fighting Box Animals is growing distant and that's a relief but he doesn't slow his speed any. "Aliens, it... it has... has to... be." He hears someone wheeze and the kid glances to his right to find a pair speed walking, both looking tired and in their teens.

"With what... what... ships? Also... why pick... well... people... like... like... well, you know!" The other teen states in a snappish way.

It's not the way the pair dress that causes Kaito to peg the two as girls, it's just... It's just something in his head that says they were and he didn't want to speak up to ask. Looking away from the pair of teenage girls, he is overtaking the two while looking for a spray sign to give him directions toward the safety shelter. Sure enough, he spies a spray sign and it directs him to go left, which he does, moving through the throng of bodies who all seem to be rather exhausted from their running away from the same fight or perhaps the fight concerning the owners of the two Box Animals.

It's not long before he glimpses the safety shelter and the line of people. Kaito slows into a fast walk now, doing his best to ignore the dry red splatters along with the smell that usually hangs around the entrance of these kind of things. Once he's at the end of the line, he comes to a stop and finally looks back the way he came, his hand going to the dog tags that belonged to his dead mom, this thumb going over the familiar feel of the etchings upon the metal's surfaces. He's pretty sure that his dad would have headed to the basement of their apartment complex with his younger brother, who's only three, soon to be four in a month's time and hold up there.

Looking up, his stomach drops at the sight of a air plane size vulture enshrouded in green Flame just flying overhead. He thanks any higher powers that are listening that the Vulture and its passengers didn't pay the grounds before the safety shelter any mind. As he gets to the front of the line, he can't help but turn his head to the right, noting a man sporting white hair and not looking very healthy. The cloths clearly seen better days and it kind of seems to him that the other is studying the line, then, well, the man notices him watching him.

It seems like time slows to a crawl before it breaks, with a blink he turns his head to the front. "Name?" The clearly tired woman asks.

"Terashima Kaito." The ten year old states automatically as he lets go of the dog tags. She writes his name down and waves him towards the search tent that sports the testing dog.

While tempted to look back at the direction of where the man had been, he already knows that there's no point, for the man is already gone. The testing dog gives him a sniff and then, after considering him, approves of him. With a slight smile and giving the dog a scratch behind the ears, Kaito heads for the stairs that lead down into the shelter.

 **x + x + T = T + x + x**

"Terashima Kaito... Son of one Sawada Yuna and Terashima Tomoaki, elder brother of one Terashima Shirogane." Opening his eyes, he finds himself staring at that man he saw as he was near the front of the line. "A third cousin to the current Don Vongola, one Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"A Rainy Sky it seems." It's then that he realizes that their surroundings is... off. "Not yet Active, but that will surely change, given the way things are playing out."

"What are you talking about?" Kaito asks, not really sure what to make the man nor the topic at hand. He does his best to not lick his lips as a sign of his nervousness.

"An... insurance policy." The white haired man states in a matter of fact tone. "This little experiment of the Gesso Famiglia seems to be something that's going to be spiraling out of control and due to your mother's blood, you are the best bet to monitor this experiment as you'll exist in each of these... simulations."

"Simulations?" He doesn't like the sound of that and yet, it sends a chill down his spine. "The Bovino Famiglia might have created the technology but they don't know what it is they actually created but the Gesso Famiglia? Oh, they know but what's far more concerning is this." An image of a young girl seems to appear between them, rather life like and yet...

Blue eyes and dark hair but he's sure that if the light hits it just right it'll be green in color. About her neck is an orange pacifier upon a ribbon that just screams WRONG to his senses. "Her name has yet to settle upon actual name, so she'll likely have many before this simulation comes to an end."

"Why are you worried?" The ten year old asks, not really seeing what the problem is about this young girl. "Can't you do something about her before she becomes a problem?"

"Oh, this is my fourth time here and yes, I've done my best to install something to keep her from developing beyond her role but I'm growing tired of monitoring these fake worlds." The man states and he stiffens as it sinks in what that means for him.

"I'm just as fake as this world." He remarks as he gives the man a glare. "Why trust me?"

"Blame Sepira for picking Giotto, blame the fact that you actually exist! Sure, your only a week old babe right now but you exist." He isn't sure what to make of that and it likely shows on his face. "Curse me, curse them, but when all said and done, you have the right blood and thus the adept for this job."

"As for trust..." The man states. "I don't need to trust you, not really. I am mostly trusting you're self interest." The white haired man focuses upon the girl once more, "After all, do you really want her to escape out of these scenarios and into the actual, real world? Where she can get to your parents? To the actual you?"

He bites down on his lip, there's something about that statement that he knows is going to cause him no end of worry but, well, he's got no context about any of this. Yet, he just Knows that it doesn't really matter as this man has already decided to follow through with his plans. "Who are you?" Kaito asks.

"I'm fond of Kawahira." States the now smirking man. "Don't worry about trying to find me within these fake experimental simulations, I've removed myself from the equation from the moment I sensed this kind of... technology getting used."

"Now then, my Gift to you, Terashima Kaito." And with that, a sphere of almost blue and purple gets created as the girl's image fades away. "Give your age, don't be surprise to see minor changes going on with your own Flame Nature. You are young, after all, so it's still subject to change, well, to a point."

With that, the sphere shoots at him and he's unable to do anything, his limbs seem to be held in place, it enters into his chest and his mouth opens and...

 **x + x + T = T + x + x**

There's three Box Animals, one is empowered by Rain Flames while the other two are made of Storm Flames. Opening his eyes, he recalls his dream and sighs. It's been hundred thousand of worlds since that meeting with Kawahira and still, Kaito isn't sure what to feel about his task nor about his ever changing Flame Nature.

At the moment, his body is that of a five year old and he has until he's twelve to ensure that the artificial holder of the Arcobaleno pacifier is still unaware of the nature of this fake world and how the current Mare Ring possessor is figuring out how to conqueror the world, which has been the more recent scenarios. Which means getting his hands on money for a ticket and finding out if his parents have a passport for him. The money isn't that hard to get by now, he's had far too much practice in using whatever Flame or Flames he has to get what he needs.

Turning his head, he spies the huge Rain fueled Bison as it fights against the pair of larger then natural Storm Tigers. Getting up from the edge of the roof, he turns his body and has his legs hanging off the roof. None of the three are big enough to smash buildings with ease, but then, certain Flames are good at having their Box Animals grow to such unnatural sizes without losing any of their agility or movement speed.

The two Tigers are wearing the Bison down and it doesn't take him long to find the fighting organized crime members having their own fight. The winning forces are those of the Millefiore Famiglia, which is the merged Famiglia of two Italian Mafia Famiglias, the Gesso and the Giglio Nero. Soon enough, the Rain owner of the Bison dies and given how 'new' the Box Animal technology is, the Rain Bison explodes into Rain Flames, spilling out over everywhere.

The two Tigers vanish into their respective Flame Boxes, the Bison's Flame Box had been destroyed with the death of the Rain who'd owned it. With a thought, he calls upon his respective Flames, it seems in this fake world he's in possession of Cloud and Rain, to decrease the chance of him begin noticed by the unit of Millefiore below. He doesn't need to manifest either Flame in the open, he uses them to duplicate the odds of him escaping notice with his Cloud Flame and uses his Rain Flame to numb their ability to sense him. It's him using his Flames to empower concepts, something he picked up from a certain game that spawned an anime plus manga.

Kaito smiles slightly as he recalls how he manages to pull off an impressive Emiya Shirou impersonation when he has either Lightning or Mist Flames. Lightning to mimic the character's Reinforcement along with figuring out if there was something to the idea that Shirou using Reinforcement when he's cooking. Mist Flames, well, that just lets him pull off the character's Projection and Unlimited Blade Works. It's not often he has both Lightning and Mist Flames, the closest he gets to having both is when he possesses Sky Flames.

 _Which is my kind of qualifies as my second Flame Nature._ The current five year old notices. His primary is both Cloud and Rain, both are equal portions.

He's been noticing how common it is for him to possess Rain Flames whenever he possesses Sky Flames, which reminds him of the fact that Kawahira remarked at he'd been a Rainy Sky when they met, causing him to frown as he recalls that he's dreamed of that meeting. "Minor changes, he said..." Kaito isn't sure if Kawahira honestly knew how wildly his Flame Nature would sway but it's clear that the man underestimated it.

"And the me out side of all this is now two years old." The blue haired kid muses with a slight sigh. Yes, his home life fluctuates a lot, sometimes he has a younger sibling, other times he doesn't. The names of said siblings and genders are subject to change due to the nature of this whole fake world simulation. It hurts, really, that his younger brother Terashima Shirogane doesn't exist and that he's the only one who's going to be mourning him, along with those other siblings that he's grown close to only for them to cease to exist when the world reaches a certain temporal point that lines up with it being ten years from the start of when they 'launched' the technology.

Sometimes, he's pretty sure that the Gesso Famiglia aren't the ones who activated the simulation as Box Animals don't usual show up until near the end of the temporal run. Oh, the Gesso do set out for world conquest but, well, their plans are rather... see through and follow certain, well traveled patterns as it were. "Which means Bovino Famiglia's Ten Year whatever."

With a slight shake of his head, Kaito smirks as he takes note of which roof he's on and glances around. Then he slides a bit more to the edge and calls up his Flames for what he's about to do. He pushes himself off the roof and calls upon his Sky Flame to Harmonize himself with the concept of safe landing while using his primary dual to slow his decent through the air and increase the odds of him landing unharmed.

He huffs as his feet touch the ground and he kind of ends up in a crouch. Breathing a touch more heavily then before, Kaito is very pleased with himself as he does his best to gracefully flow into a standing position. With his dual primary Flames still hiding him from the Mafioso, he walks away with his hands slightly in his pockets, only his thumbs exposed as he mentally digs into this version of him for the location of where he lives along with details about his parents and family.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

The Vongola Family Archive is something he does his best to visit whenever he's in Italy, after all, the books that the Ninth Don of the Vongola Famiglia aren't always the same ones he wants to get rid of. From what little he knows concerning the Ninth Don, he was already fucking old when his actual sons had been alive and likely already beginning to suffer from the usual problems that come with being that old, never mind stubborn and more then likely not as healthy or as invulnerable as the Famiglia suspects. What little he's been able to examine of the old man, when he's alive in these fake worlds, is that there's a Curse clinging to the elderly man's Flame, the Curse had been deeply rooted within the Ninth Don and it seems that the Curse had a lot of 'fertile' ground to 'grow' in.

What kind of bothers him is, the Curse doesn't seem... active within the Ninth Don. Kaito's not sure what that means save that the Curse hasn't been broken but it clearly still exists as the 'growth' hasn't decayed much within the Ninth Don's Sky Flame. It bothers him, as it means that the Curse is a powerful one and, perhaps the most frightening, very subtle.

Only reason the currently seven year old in body knows it even exists is because he wanted to get an idea of what the fucking hell the elderly Sky was thinking, picking a Japanese teenager over the various other Mafia candidates? Along with why didn't the man retire when he still had at least two of his three blood sons around? Sure, both Tsunayoshi and himself are descendants of Giotto but the Famiglia has been in possession of the Second's bloodline since Giotto left Italy for Japan, the Vongola Famiglia pretty much belongs to the Second Don's bloodline for so much more time. There's no point in picking someone with Giotto's blood when there's so many people still possessing the Second Don's blood, even if they had married out into the greater Alliance.

So yea, the Ninth Don had medical conditions going on that he hid using not just his own Sky Flame but the various lingering vestiges of Sky Flames from previous Dons that cling to the so called Iron Fort and the Vongola Sky Ring. Kaito almost wants to say that the Curse helped in hiding it but, no, it just... He's not sure, that Curse isn't anchored on the former Don so he can't really Know what the Curse is meant to Do. It just seemed to help the former Don to be more incline to make terrible decisions in regards to his personal life, which echoed out onto the Vongola Famiglia as well.

After all, if those health problems had been caught, they could have been treated early enough to ensure that the impact of said conditions wouldn't overly effect the Ninth or perhaps it would mean that the people around the man would be more willing to question the former Don's decisions. _In the end, not my problem. It happened and it's not like anything can ultimately change it so that one of the man's actual sons took the reins of the Famiglia._

He's walking through the halls towards the Archive when he notices the former Don coming out of a secret passage. Kaito pauses and watches the depressed elderly man slowly walk away. Glancing towards the area the former Don came out of, he glances between the two, the spot to the former Don. This isn't the first time he's seen the former Don exit out of some secret passage and he always wanted to check on that but, well, he'd put it off to later.

 _And I was busy thinking about him when I encountered him..._ Kaito muses and then decides that he doesn't have any real pressing concerns. It's been a while since I've seen this happen. He reflects as he begins to search around for the latch, being sure to use his Cloud Flame to increase the odds of him finding the latch.

Triggering the latch, the wall opens, he's quick to move out of the way and then enters the secret short hall that sports stairs. There's a light switch but he uses his Flames to grant him dark vision, being sure to close the wall so it doesn't cause some problems. Calling upon his Sky Flame, he Harmonizes the concept of dark vision to his eyes, Kaito sees the hallway as thought it was light up.

What he finds... "Fuck." The seven year old can't help but curse in English at the sight of one Xanxus engulfed in Zero Point Breakthrough ice. The very sight of the teenage Sky frozen in an block of ice, it shocks him and it doesn't take long before he realizes how long the Sky must have been frozen for either.

 _Is he... Yea, he'd have to always be here. Is he even alive?_ Kaito wonders as he approaches the block of Zero Point Breakthrough ice. It's surreal to finally kind of meet the Sky of most of the Varia Officers and yet, it's not the way he'd want to.

"How could he justify this?" He wonders out loud in a tone that spoke volumes of disbelief at the sight before and what it suggests concerning a certain former Don's regard for the Sky trapped within said block of Flame ice. _How are the officers still Loyal... Ok, yea, I can see how._ Kaito thinks darkly with a frown.

He's never going to be fond of organize crime and never get why those with Flames would limit themselves, never mind the whole need a ring to spark a Flame off of. He can get why containers are needed for Box Weapons, the most popular of those are Box Animals but it's depressing that all those who Activate their Flame Nature just... just linger, really. Sure, there's a greater cost of living expenses when it comes to food and the need for cloths, well, until people can get the hang of using their Flame to not burn everything that isn't the User. So yes, money is needed but it's few people who seek to better themselves or perhaps it's just that they don't know where to begin?

 _Varia Quality is an actual thing._ He admits as he circles around the block of Flame ice. _Most of them do work to home their Flame Nature._

Still, the longer he is within this place, Kaito can't help but feel... off. His discomfort just keeps growing at the sight and his mouth feels so dry. There's something about this that just... disturbs him on some level, it offends him, being here. Looking around, it's like the space is getting smaller and...

As he comes to, he's breathing heavily and there's distant shouts of alarm. Kaito blinks his eyes slowly and turns his head to the direction he hears those voices in. It's then that he realizes why he feels so tired as he pretty much Raged Out in the confides of this dark, dank room.

Suppressing a yawn, he notices a crack that leads out of the room and doesn't haste to climb through it as the voices grow louder and louder. His eyes still sporting that Sky Alteration so he sees clearly in the darkness. For now, his goal is to find a spot in which to hold up and rest.

He doesn't have the energy to waste on wondering concerning his actions back in that room nor why he reacted like that. Kaito just wants somewhere Safe and away from the Flame ice and it's prisoner. He's got time, after all, to sort himself out later.

 **x + x + T = T + x + x**

Stroking the fur of his stolen Box Animal, which is a Tanuki, Kaito regards the now officially named Yuni, it's the name that the girl who's made to be the stand in for the Sky Arobaleno been called for the pass almost three hundred worlds. He's unsure what to make of that fact, honestly. It bothers him that she now has an actual name, it makes her more... real and stable when these fake worlds are merely simulations that two Mafia Famiglia keep creating for their various and private purposes.

Sure, it's one thing to be told that he'd been born, that he exists outside of these simulations but... It's hard for him to really grasp as well. Sure, it's seems so simple, just keep an eye on the now Yuni and do something if she tries to... He's not really sure but he Knows he has Time before she's Aware and begins to Influence things.

 _"Left ear... please."_ The Sky Tanuki mentally whispers in his mind. With not even a roll of his eyes, his hand moves to do as requested.

Yea, he's learn to modify Box Animals, increasing their intelligence so that he could bounce ideas off of them. Loneliness is hard on him and while he's found ways to push it back, it doesn't really go away and he doesn't want to even think about either finding another Sky to bond with or Attract other Flames to his Sky. Given how devastating it still is when the fake world ends and his family changes... Yea, he can only imagine how much Worst it would be if he'd Harmonize with anyone.

"I think we're done here." Kaito murmurs softly in his native Japanese to the Tanuki as he lowers the mini telescope, pulling back the hand he'd been using to scratch the Tanuki's ear. The Flame Animal huffs but begins to do some stretches.

 _"Free the Warth?_ " The Tanuki inquires and he gets a mental impression of the Iron Fort. He gets up off the chair while looking at the nearest wall.

He wants to say no, that he's not ready but, well, he's been finding excuses for so long now and frankly, he's kind of scared. Never mind that he's had a few more Rage Outs in that space that have left him in some pretty dark, depressing moods. "Yea, yea it's time." He feels his mouth go dry at the statement and the Tanuki moves to lick his nearest dangling hand's fingers in comfort.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

It's really not that surprising to see the Tenth Don walking up the stairs of the Iron Fort, surrounded by his two 'hands', both of whom were politically chosen, hand picked by the two shadow powers of the Vongola Famiglia. For some reason, it's always the Storm that's considered the 'right' hand of the young Don, he's not really sure why but figures it's likely due to the Ninth's continued influence on the affairs of the Famiglia. The position of 'left' various wildly but he knows that it's never a Lightning or a Mist to take up that post, again, he's pretty sure that there's a reason that had nothing to do with Tsunayoshi's opinion on the matter and everything to do with either prejudices concerning the two Flame Natures or some private inner Famiglia thing. _Or, again, due to either the Ninth or the External Advisor._

He'll never get use to the fact that his third cousin of somehow always ends up the Tenth Don of the Vongola Famiglia, what ultimately isn't set in stone from what he can tell is the hows of his training does change overtime along with the names and faces of his Guardians. _Well, there's usually a Lightning from of the Bovino Famiglia._ Kaito mentally muses before dismissing the train of thought that leads into that topic of thought concerning the older by two years Lightning kid.

Sometimes they're older then the broken Japanese Don, other times, near the same age but other then that Lightning kid, it's rare for there to be actual Guardian candidates younger then his cousin. The rare trio of worlds that happened, well... His cousin seemed to have more of a Spirit and Will in him along with clearly doing his best to shelter those Guardians from various members of the Famiglia, including the former Don and the External Advisor. Not that it didn't mean that there hadn't been older stand in Guardians, which does bring up the matter concerning the Bovino kid consistent presence, like, maybe the kid, who's two years older then him, being the actual Lighting Guardian?

With a soft sigh, he closes his eyes and counts to ten. Taking deep, calming breaths, holding them for a few seconds before breathing out. Feeling a touch more calm, after all, the Lightning does take a lot of abuse, likely all in the bullshit excuse of fucking 'training'. Opening his eyes, he does his best to derail his mind from the slightly older kid's situation within these simulations.

The truth of the matter is this, as far as Kaito is concerned, the Vongola Famiglia didn't need Sawada Tsunayoshi, they cared nothing of the Sealed and Broken Sky from which they molded their Tenth Don. It's always 'Decimo this' or 'Decimo that' or even, 'a Vongola Don does this'. It's hardly surprising that given half a chance and enough unsupervised time, Tsunayoshi finds a way to commit suicide. He's read a number of autopsies about the state of his cousin's body and there's signs of a great deal of stress and depression, never mind the discovery of how damaging that Seal that the Ninth Don placed with the blessing of the External Advisor had on Tsunayoshi, never mind the years upon years of bullying his cousin endured growing up.

He'd found evidence of that same Curse that lingers on the Ninth on his cousin's dead body. Kaito would love to get the chance to examine his cousin while he's alive for that Curse but there's always someone running interference between the Tenth Don and, well, pretty much everyone that isn't either the External Advisor or the former Don. Although Tsunayoshi may wear the Vongola Rings, he's denied the power that the position has, just a puppet who's strings the Ninth pulls or the External Advisor does if the Ninth dies at some point within these fake worlds. It's rare that both of those people die in these simulations but he figures that it'll happen, sooner or later, and then, well, it kind of depends on those Guardians that 'claim' the Tenth Don as their 'Sky'.

For a moment, before entering into the Iron Fort, his cousin seems to pause and turn around, looking about the surroundings. The eyes don't settle on him from what he can make out, still, he wonders if his fellow Japanese Sky can Feel that Something is going to happen. In the end, nothing comes of it and the Don enters into the building.

He waits for darkness to fully settle before Harmonizing various concept about himself, 'weaving' the 'strands' of concepts about like a blanket that he can 'cover' himself in. He tugs a few strands lingering Sky Flames from the Iron Fort as an outer 'layer' of the 'blanket'. Then he waits a few minutes to see if anyone noticed what he'd done. "So far so good." Kaito murmurs to himself in English.

Covering himself with the 'blanket', the current eight year old begins to head off to make use of a certain tunnel that will allow him to get in under the Iron Fort. From there, he's sure that he'll find the latest entrance to that room that contains the Flame ice and the Sky held within. It wouldn't do for anyone to discover what happened to Xanxus nor would the former Don want the Varia Officers to get any ideas about rescuing their collective Sky.

The Tanuki within the Box pulls on his Flames and summons itself out of the Box that contains it, it doesn't surprise him much, the Box Animals he modifies are intelligent and are always intone him then the usual ones. After all, they can commune telepathically with him and it's not usual for them to develop personalities the longer he possesses them, some Box Animals develop personalities faster then others. The special ability of the Sky Tanuki is transformation, which generally has the fluffy canine taking the appearance of other people or animals, he'd yet to see if they could turn into a plant. He's had the Tanuki take the form of an adult in the past to prevent questions about what is an eight year old Japanese kid doing wandering about Italy without an adult of any kind.

 _"Wrong! All wrong!"_ The Tanuki informs him as the Box Animal comes to a pause near the block of Flame ice, growling with bared teeth. _"Hurtful ice! Get rid of it... please?"_

"Yes, the ice is seriously bad. And yes, I will." The blue haired Rainy Sky agrees. It kind of surprises him that there's lights set up around the room but none of them are on. "The man who did this was... still is sick. Mentally ill really."

Studying the room, it kind of looks like someone is thinking of maybe unfreezing Xanxus only they never follow through with it. The Tanuki whines as he moves until he's within a foot of the Flame ice. He's been doing his best to learn Zero Point Breakthrough from the Vongola Archive and from mentally breaking the former Don of the Vongola for the information. Kaito can't say he feels guilty going that route, he's got plenty of anger issues concerning the elderly, mentally unhealthy, and willfully controlling former Don when it comes to the man's handling of his cousin, he could careless about the Vongola Famiglia or the Mafia, as far as he's concerned the disaster going on among the criminal underworld concerning the simulation Millefiore famiglia is just karma coming home to roost.

Giving himself a slight shake and refocusing on what he's here to do, the blue haired Sky closes his eyes and goes through the mental exercises to reach the right state of mind needed for Hyper Dying Will Mode. As he opens his eyes, his Rain tinted Sky Flames are flaring from his head, although unlike the typical version, his sees him sporting Flames mimicking a pair of short horns, kind of like a certain half demon character from a certain anime and manga. Then there's the fact that he's pretty sure he's giving off an aura of Tranquility and Harmony while in this state of his as he focuses on Feeling out his surroundings.

The 'blanket' is tearing apart, so he focuses on repairing it while studying the Flame ice before him. Noticing the age and how this room lacks a lot of Flame reserves that generally pool themselves throughout the Iron Fort, it's clear that the Flame ice is much more frail, at least the layers that are closer to the surface, the inner layers being the ones closest to the so called Wrathful Sky makes it hard for him to tell if the other Sky is still alive. Within a second of making his decision on how to go about dispelling or releasing the frozen Sky Flame that makes up the ice, he's already started on his self appointed task and mission.

Time doesn't matter and he notices how the Sky Tanuki has taken up the role of sentry, having moved beyond his current Sensing range. It matters not as the connection of Flame between them means he is still aware of what's going on within ten feet of the Box Animal, despite him being in this Flame Mode and totally focus on releasing Xanxus from this Flame ice prison. With the outer layers released, Kaito is now aware that the hard part begins as he dimly realizes just how frail the trapped Sky is.

Thankfully, he's a Rainy Sky and using his Rain Flame to relax time's hold on any Sky besides himself within this room is something that works, which the kid is fairly sure he's going to spend reflecting on, as he's moving to catch the now freed Sky, who's barely alive along with unhealthy. Without considering the implications of what he's already doing, he feeds the so called 'blanket' to Xanxus along with the concepts of perfectly fine, healthy, and stable. Feeling Xanxus stabilize and Harmonize with those three concepts, at least for the time being, Kaito drops out of his Hyper Dying Will Mode just as the Tanuki reaches the bottom step.

The Box Animal hurries over and begins mothering him as he struggles to stay awake. "Get us out of here... please." He yawns before finishing the sentence and it's not long before the Tanuki gives him a final lick on the cheek, he manages to stay awake enough for the tip out of the room and to a hidden spot that's long forgotten about, the Tanuki easily able to get him out of there before returning back for Xanxus.

With that, exhaustion takes him, although he gets the Feeling that the Tanuki will be lingering for a while yet.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

Waking to someone gripping his throat is... rather unique experience for him. Eyes opening, he finds Xanxus' red eyes glaring into his own, there's a frown upon the face but he's more interested in the fact that some of the damage he kind of remembers on the face not looking so... there. It takes him a few seconds to register that Xanxus is talking only, it's clear that there's nothing really coming out.

He's still exhausted from what he'd done along with hungry and thirsty. So, he gives the should be an adult the last known date, in Italian, along with his name. It's enough to get the hand off his throat and the still teenage Sky to move so he can get up. Yawning in the end, he glances around the room and finds that his Tanuki had gone off to get food and bottles of drink.

With a sideways glance towards the older Sky, he pushes himself up onto his feet and walk over. It's not long before he feels the other Sky's gaze upon him as he opens on of the bottled drinks, a coattail juice, drinking from it, after all, it wouldn't be here if it weren't safe. After feeling refreshed, he checks glances around and then notices that he doesn't have the Tanuki's Box on him.

Xanxus smirks in a smug fashion, as if knowing what he no longer has. "It's a Box Animal, it'll take the form of a Tanuki." He informs the other Sky. "It's the one who got the food and drink." Keeping to Italian.

Snorting in disbelief, Xanxus does call up his Flame and sure enough, the Tanuki appears and he snorts softly. The Tanuki glances between them, clearly trying to work out if it should come to him or stay with the Sky who's Flame called it out of the Box. "I think Xanxus wants a paper or a calendar." He informs the Box Animal, who then glances at the Sky with red eyes.

Xanxus gives him a glare but nothing comes out of the moving mouth. Then there's a look of surprise and the other's head snaps while the face moves to Look at the Tanuki. It's clear that the two then communicate in a telepathic manner, some of the tension in the other Sky's shoulders ease off. He merely observes as he grabs one of the food containers, it's not long before the Tanuki transforms into a maid before leaving the room.

The Sky then tenses up a bit, realizing that they are alone and, well, between them, Kaito is the healthier of the two. It's clear that the other is paranoid and not willing to overly trust him, which is just fine in his books, he doesn't really trust the other Sky either, after all, when it comes down to it, the other is a Mafioso along with having the ultimate In with the Varia seeing how he's the Sky to most of the Officers. He can kind of already guess what kind of orders the Tanuki has been given and he's pretty sure that he'll be able to get away when one or a pair of the Officers arrive, after all, they'd be far to occupied over their respective Sky to really give him any real consideration.

 _Egypt might be a decent country to visit._ Kaito muses, doing his best not to think too long term while around Xanxus. He'd check his watch if he still have it to get an idea of how long the two of them had been out only he doesn't have it anymore, which makes him thankful that he left his wallet, backpack, passport, and his two spare Box Weapons in Elsewhere to be Returned in three days time.

Xanxus struggles to stay awake but falls asleep. With a slight smile, the younger Sky gently brushes the other with his Rain Flame, nudging the other into a more restful sleep. He finishes the food off and works on 'weaving' another 'cloth' to hide himself in, this time, he creates something more 'sturdy', 'tailored', and 'fitting' as he doesn't want to be found by anyone from here on out. It takes the form of a dark orange with navy blue trim cloak as it Harmonizes into Reality of this Fake World.

With a smile, Kaito pulls the hood up and touching the hinges with Rain Flame, opens the door, closing it silently. He regrets leaving the Tanuki behind but can't help but Feel that Xanxus Needs the modified Box Animal more then he does, after all, he's got a spare Box Animal to fall back on. His other Box Weapon is a Territory type and allows him to Claim a thirty foot sphere of the Fake World as his own, letting him set up what goes on within as he sees fit.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

A loud voice echoing in the hallway beyond the room and he's awake in an instance. It's then that he registers the Feel of the Box Animal and the Feel of his Rain and his Sun Officer. Xanxus grunts as he realizes that the blue haired Sky is long gone and yet, he glances at the container still in his hand along with the wrist watch that's on his own wrist. The Trashy Brat didn't even see fit to take back what's his and for a second, just a god damn fucking second, he's thankful.

Then his mouth feels dry and he tries to curse only for a wheeze and coughing fit to happen. Pocketing the actual tiny fucking Box, he stands up and notices that there's no food let but there's plenty left to drink. Being able to Feel other Flames viva his connection with the Box Animal is something he makes a note of, the fact that the beast can also transform and pass itself off as a human being had been the first note while it being able to communicate with him telepathically was his second. _Fucking useful._ Is his opinion on these Box Animals and already wants to find out more about what else they can do.

The door opens as he finishes gulping down his second bottle of juice and the maid reverts back to the Tanuki, there's a slight sigh as the beast notices that its previous owner is gone but comes to heel at his feet. "Vio! What the FUCK?! She was a... What the actual Fuck?!" The Shark bellows and he makes a note of that, which makes him wonder if the reason the Trashy Brat left the Tanuki has to do with the fact that he'd be able to get his hands on another Box Animal with similar capabilities.

"Boss?" Luss stammers out and that does cause the Shark to jerk his head up with eyes wide and it's clear that both are unable to believe it's him. _"Avoided the ice room, people recently visited it."_ The Tanuki states.

 _"How recent?"_ The Sky demands. _"Hour after you got free recent."_ States the Tanuki.

It's then that he feels his Rain's Flame lash out, as if to strike him down only for it wrap itself around him instead upon touching his Sky Flame. "..." Eyes widen and he frowns, it's then that he can Sense something from his Rain, it takes him seconds to find the right word and it's, older.

Oh, he recalls the Trashy Brat giving him the date but, well, he didn't really believe it. With quick gesture, he lights up the small room with his Sky Flame and gets his first good look at the two, the sight stealing his breath away at just how much older the two of them are. It's then that he does the math in his head and, while he wishes it weren't so, Knows that the Sky brat hadn't Lied to him, well, about the Date and Year.

Just as his emotions are beginning to sway out of his control, the Tanuki Pulls the emotions into itself and Squalo's Rain are already funneling Tranquility into him. For now, he's out of it as the two move into the room, both reaching out for him and pulling him into a hug. He's drowning in Tranquility and so, he's not sure how the pair gets him out of the Iron Fort, all he's really aware of is the Tanuki and the state of his Flame Bonds.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

It takes four days for the damage in his throat to heal, which puzzles Varia Medical, then again, his rapid recovery from being frozen in Zero Point Breaththrough is bizarre and he wishes he'd been able to have that Trashy Brat here so that the brat could explain whatever Sky bullshit he'd done when he got out of that frozen hell. On his questioning the Tanuki, which turns out to be a specially and heavily modified Box Animal according to those who examine it, it just seemed puzzled by how none of them didn't Know something so Obvious. And yes, the fact that one can actually Question the Sky Tanuki is something that seems that everyone finds hard to wrap their head around.

Investigation into the brat's name brings out that the fact that he is a third cousin of the current Decimo Vongola Don, both of whom are descendants of Primo through his mother, one former Sawada Yuna. Examination of the Tanuki gave them his Flame type, which is a Rainy Sky. Another fact is... as far as his father and the official channels in Japan knows, Trashy Brat is in Italy due to a school exchange program. Which means that Trashy Brat has either connections to pull that off himself, unlikely, or is doing someone's dirty work, which involves what's going on concerning the Millefiore Famiglia and its take over of the Italian underworld, which is the most likely.

Reasons for defrosting him out of the old fart's ice are unknown, well, besides the Tanuki stating the brat had been working up the nerve to do that for a 'long' time. Scratching the Tanuki's right ear, Xanxus tries to mentally work out the reasons behind the why as the brat should know that he'd violently object to serving under such a fucking weak Sky that is his cousin. _"Looking at it wrong."_ Pipes in the Box Animal.

"The fuck you mean, trash?" He asks out loud and the Sky Tanuki sighs. _"Look at who wanted him there, at who wants everyone to See Him, not Them."_

And that's likely why his people are so alarmed over, the Tanuki isn't his Flames in the shape of an animal, it's his Flames given voice and ability to Think. Neither of which bother him as much as it does them. Frowning, he considers that odd statement, after all, the Sky Trash is the Don of the Famiglia, he's the one calling the shots when all is said and done.

Glancing at the file concerning the Decimo generation, Xanxus sighs and grabs it to give it another read, only keeping in mind what the Tanuki said. It fucking takes him a number of reasons and a few pointed statements between them before it finally sinks in that Tsunayoshi really isn't the Don, oh, he has been given the title but he's got no real say on how the Famiglia operates. In fact, he's pretty sure he's only got a small handful of the puzzle pieces concerning the picture that is the Decimo generation.

"Going to go over everything that's happened since I was iced." He tells the Tanuki and the beast gives him a sharp dip of the head in acknowledgement. "Going to be reminding me if I forget, huh trash?"

There's a slight vulpine smile and clear agreement shining in those now crimson amber eyes, they had formerly been simply amber. Then the Tanuki moves to get more within reach of his arms and with a roll of his eyes, he begins to pet the beast that's infuriating his Varia Quality assassins by its mere presence. A lot of his tension and emotional turmoil fades as he does so, compared to other Raccoon Dogs, Japanese Tanuki have silkier coat and he wouldn't be surprised if the coat of the Sky Tanuki had also been modified so that it's easier to pet the beast.

It's not the first time it crossed his mind that the Trashy Brat somehow knew that the Tanuki would be needed by him. That it's the real reason for 'abandoning' the beast is because the brat's Intuition figured Xanxus needed the Box Animal more then the brat did then planting a 'spy' among the Varia. _Damn fucking trash..._

Still, a small part of him is so fucking thankful that the beast is by his side and more then capable of thinking along with voicing its thoughts and wishes, that it has opinions along with it doesn't Know much concerning Varia besides they are 'Independent' Assassins that have ties to the Vongola. So, he's been able to re-familiarize himself with the Varia by educating the beast viva his own memories of his short stint as its Boss, there had been questions of his own about how well did he really know about the organization that is Varia. Which is how he requested books sent his way for him to review, particularly any updates since he'd been frozen.

Nightmares are another reason why he keeps the Tanuki out and by his side. Then again, it should be fucking obvious that he'd end up suffering from them. Feeling the Tanuki with his Flames and how the beast mothers him afterwards... It damn fucking helps and the Tanuki doesn't give a shit that he's practically a full grown man and doesn't need any comfort after a stupid fucking nightmare...

Fucking Luss seems to fucking approve of the beast's actions and conduct once the Sun Trash came to check up on him after he'd woke from his second nightmare. It does cause him to wonder if Trashy Brat suffered from them as well. _Of fucking course the brat is, he's a fucking civilian before whoever sank their claws into him._ He snaps at himself.

Putting the files on the Decimo generation back on the stand, he takes a moment to study his hands, particularly his fingers. The scars are almost gone and he's regained more dexterity these pass few days then he'd have any right to expect along with sensitivity. It's not just his fingers, he'd been having trouble with his eyes, one eye in particular had Luss despairing since the first day only not any more. His health is getting better without any Sun Flames in his system, oh he's got a Flame Transfer but a certain portion of those Flames had been collected from lingering Sky Flames of the Iron Fort and the owners long dead. It's clear that his Flames had been weak when he'd been released and if not for that Flame Transfer, he'd be dead.

That he owes the Trashy Brat his life along with his freedom... it just pisses him off. For now though, he's got other things to do and the brat's not skilled enough to hide for long plus the brat is a civilian and in over his head. An Active Sky is a valuable prize after all, and a young Sky about the age of ten or younger? A once in a lifetime one and that's even before the blood connection between the Trashy Brat and the Sky Trash is even known.

 **x + x + T = T + x + x**

Holding the Box Weapon in his hand, Kaito finds himself glancing sideways towards the older Sky. Xanxus' appearance is different, then again, the other wanted his appearance different for this simulation. With a simple toss, the Box Weapon goes flying to the center of the room and activates, the Territory is now in place, hiding the fact that the Varia Sky is free. It's been six months since the start of this simulated world and, well, it seems that the Vongola Famiglia really have solidified who his cousin's Home Tutor is going to be.

"Fucking Reborn again?" Asks Xanxus as the Sky strokes the feline hybrid, a jaguar crossed with a leopard, he's not sure if there's an actual name for the cross. The older Sky snorts upon seeing the look on his face.

"Nobody from the Vongola Famiglia assigned from what I've gathered." He informs the current auburn haired teen with dark green eyes. About his wrist is a special Box Weapon that allows him to 'age' up. He's physically three, which means the Bovino Lightning is five but he added a decade plus two years so that he currently looks fifteen physically.

There's a clear sneer on the physically sixteen year old's face at the information along with anger there, but then, it had taken Xanxus a few worlds to fully grasp the lengths of which the Ninth and the External Advisor will go to in regards to ensuring Tsunayoshi position as their puppet Don. He still recalls the number of creative ways to killed both of those men, of course, it had to be on the slight and general use of body doubles or Real Illusions to take the parts of not just the Ninth but also the Ninth's closest Guardians. Oh yes, as far as Xanxus is concerned, Sealing Tsunayoshi equaled kicking the kid out and that the Ninth never gets around to Unsealing his cousin, it means that he's still banished and out of line of succession plus means that, as much as the Wrath doesn't want to admit it, Tsunayoshi is a victim of the two.

After all, if given an out that would be secure, Tsunayoshi will take it. It's easy to remove his cousin out from under his previous Home Tutors, it helps even more, Unsealing him, altering his appearance, and Harmonizing concepts of health, growth, recovery, and stability into his cousin when they do, correcting the health issues the Sealing of his Active Sky Flame caused. Yes, the device on his wrist has been used so that Tsunayoshi gets a fresh start at a new school at a grade level he can actually handle. He's got the Box Weapon that will be his cousin's body double ready but, well, Reborn is a lot harder to fool then the previous Home Tutors and Vongola assistant.

Without any more exchanges, they head out of the room viva one of the other secret passages out, confident that nobody will notice the substitution, they hadn't in the previous Fake Worlds. "Sun Pacifier." Blinking the Rainy Sky frowns, getting mix messages about the idea.

"It's... mixed." He cautions but it's clear that they'll be trying to figure out more about the Curse that's anchored to the Arobaleno pacifiers, it's clear that from their studies of Mammon's Mist Pacifier that the Arcobaleno Curse is spreading the Curse to those that wear the Vongola and Mare Rings. They had been careful in regards to Mammon, who's Xanxus' Mist, so they stuck to more cautious routes of study, rarely trying to actually figure out how to break it.

They have a hard time studying any part of the Tri-ni-set because of the various people who are guarding the various sets. Yes, they can get their hands on the Vongola Rings and have had decent success with netting the Mare Rings save for the Sky Mare Ring. As for the Arcobaleno pacifiers, it's far harder and for good reason. _Must be instinctive knowledge of what happens if they are removed._ Kaito muses to himself.

Yes, the Vindice are all former Arcobaleno and are, well, living dead is an apt term as any. They still possess a Living Will and they are anchored to their bodies. It's shocked the hell out of him when he encountered them for the first time as he's never encountered them before that point. Which is why he actually examined himself and discovered that he had been Cursed by Kawahira, the Curse of Remembering but that's all it did, was Curse him to Remember the simulations run in these Fake Worlds. Kaito can't say he's happy to find himself Cursed but, well, the source of the Curse tainting the pacifiers bares the man's signature.

It's also the cause of why Xanxus also remembers the other times he defrosted him, after all, he keeps Harmonizing concepts and some of his own Sky Flame into the other Sky. The echo of the Curse clinging to the Wrath's own Flames. Not that it seems to overly bother the older Sky, the being able to Remember that is, the other doesn't like the fact it's due to a Curse though. It also enlightens the both of them to Kawahira's mode of operation when dealing with anything it seems, which paints a very disturbing picture of the man's mentality, honestly.

So, he's learnt to put up with the fact that Xanxus' seems to have decided that he's the other Sky's Personal Apprentice, even though he is very much against having anything to do with organized crime nor is he looking to join the Varia. The blue haired Rainy Sky is pretty sure he knows why his Nickname is Satan and he's kind of amused but also exasperated at the same time, never mind that Xanxus keeps maintaining he's never seen or read the anime/manga until he brought it to the other's attention. _Just because I can in fact have those Flame horns come out looking blue with minor hints of orange doesn't mean I am anything like Rin from Blue Exorcist!_

They enter a different tunnel, he pulls out a pair of Flame Rings, a Rain and a Sky. Putting them on, Kaito closes his eyes and envisions the basics of a car frame. Soon enough, he feels Xanxus' Flames reach for his Flames, together they build a car before Harmonizing it into existence. "Decent." He rolls his eyes, the other still hasn't gotten the full hang of Harmonzing things into existence, for all that Xanxus has gotten very good with toying around with concepts and making use of individual Flames using his Sky Flame to 'weave' those various Flames into breathtaking designs that can be Real.

Walking around to the passenger side, he enters into the Xanxus Original sports car. The seats mold themselves so he's comfortable as he puts on the seat belt. He takes off the two Flame Rings, putting them back into his pocket as the other moves his seat so that the hybrid Box Animal can climb into the back. The engine roars the moment the Varia Sky touches the stirring wheel with both hands, the seat belt automatically clicking into place.

With a clearly pleased smirk, the newly created sports car begins to move forward. It's not long before they are driving down the tunnel with music playing, the radio already set to the station Xanxus prefers to listen to. The sights of the tunnel isn't overly interesting but then, it hardly matters.

 **x + x + T = T + x + x**

Staring across at the almost fifteen year old Sky, the supposed Heir of the Vongola Famiglia and all he feels is... Pity. There's this feeling of... wrongness, but that's been with him since he woke and listened to the threats the Nove Don promised to carry out upon his Rain and his annoying Sun Trash. It struck him as Wrong then, to wake to see the old fart of a man, of it taking so fucking long for him to recover from being frozen in Flame ice, of lacking something to stroke and willing to cuddle with after a nightmare...

And yet, there's something Right about being in Japan though. There's a pull on his Senses and what Instincts he has, there's someone wanting him, someone he Needs to Find as they are not here in Namimori. But, he's got fucking stupid assignment to carry out and then he'll be free enough to follow this pull.

With that internal promise, the feeling subsides. He glares at the other members of the so called Decimo generation, unlike the Chew Toy, they don't invoke any emotional sentiment one way or the other, so he's free to berate them verbally. As his eyes land on the almost seven year old Lightning, for a moment, someone else there but it fades and the sense of Loneliness curls up within a space within his chest, none of his Bonded can fill that spot. His fingers yearn to brush through fur, he'd been fine back at the Varia, what with the various felines that live there, it hadn't been hard for him to fulfill that urge.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

Memories of the so called Future wake within him but, that's not what causes him to collapse away. No, it's the other memories and the first meeting that ends with him possessing the Tanuki and flow from there, all the way to Yuni's involvement and how she monologue like a fictional villain. How she 'thanked' them for their actions in regards to the experiments understanding the Curse upon the Arcobaleno pacifiers by getting rid of the Curse of Remembering upon the Rainy Sky, upon Terashima Kaito, upon Satan who's HIS PERSONAL APPRENTICE!

As he wakes from the wash of memories, he barks orders at his Officers, he has to get to Satan before she gets the chance to send someone after him. He Refuses to lose someone who's HIS and as far as he's concerned, Satan, AKA Kaito belongs at under his protection and is a member of his family. _We'll deal with Kawahira and his Curse happy mindset after we've sorted ourselves out._ Xanxus vows.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

Sitting on the couch, Kaito can't help but Feel so Bored. School has been so Easy and while he doesn't mind being friendly with others in his class, it doesn't seem to really do anything for him, cause they all seem so immature and shallow. There's no point in listening to the teachers cause he already Knows the material but his parents get complains cause of his 'attitude'.

His dad doesn't want him to skip any grades cause he'd have trouble making friends with people so much older then him. His mother, well... she pretty much seems incline to side with his dad cause she's usually busy with her job and is rarely home. The TV is on but he's only half paying attention to what's on it.

Then the door buzzes and he perks up, glancing at the front door, he considers his opinions, after all, his dad isn't here right now. Then the almost five year old gets this Feeling of Right so, he moves off the couch and unlocks the door. "Hello?" He stares up at a pair of men but it's the one with red eyes that holds his interest, after all, he Knows those eyes.

"Voi!" Cries the other but he doesn't take his eyes off of the one wearing feathers and tails in his hair. "What's up with your face?" He can't help but ask, cause there's something very Wrong with the face having scars.

"Shitty brat, what do you expect I'd look like if not for you?" Remarks the Xan man and he blinks, cause... that's a good point. "Then you fix it. You should Know how by Now."

"Voi! What the actual fuck?" And now he turns to glance at the other man, white long hair, a Promise held dear and true. "We're talking." He states in Italian before returning to regard the teen who should be an adult.

"When did you get out?" That seems to be a very reasonable question, after all, it's always him who releases Xan man. "The old fucker wanted to rig the succession." _Like usual_ , went unsaid.

"Ok, again, why are you here? I mean, I'm not..." He isn't sure what he is, honestly. Right now, the Rainy Sky can feel his Dream Memories being so close to the surface, that if he wanted to, he could just...

Xanxus catches him as he almost collapses to the floor, Memories of the simulated worlds settling firmly into his mind as his Flames Flare up, helping to Harmonize them to his existing body. He's pretty sure Squalo is cursing up a storm while he's being held against the Wrath's chest, an arm at his back, gently rubbing it. Both are in the apartment and, well, he's tired.

It's not long before he allows himself to be lulled to sleep.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

It's an odd thing to realize that yes, Kaito is very much a child, it use to be only ever been in body though. It's clear that despite the Curse being removed that the almost five year old had some idea of what happened, but then, it shouldn't be that surprising that the Curse would affect the actual child instead of the impression of the kid, after all, Kawahira's Curses are powerful things. _Likely in the form of Dreams._

"Well?" Demands the Shark. "You got those... 'memories'? Of that... future?" He inquires and the Rain gives him a Look that reads 'of fucking course'.

"Not the actual future, just fucking stupid simulated worlds created using Mist Flame Tech." Xanxus states with a sleeping Rainy Sky. "Fucking Checkerface bastard didn't want to monitor each use of Bovino and Gesso Famiglia but didn't actually do the smart fucking thing and destroy the tech or make it not work."

"The brat?" The Shark questions. "Chew Toy's third cousin, Rainy Sky and my Personal Apprentice. Name's Satan." Oh yes, it's a fitting name and yes, he had indeed seen a few clips of the anime that is Blue Exorcist just never watched actual episodes or read it until the brat brought it up.

"Satan." And he merely smirks at the mix undertone. "Trashy Brat is Quality." For all that the kid doesn't look like it or Feel like it.

"Kind of young to challenge Chew Toy for the Rings." Remarks the Shark and he rolls his eyes. "Chew Toy's been Sealed by the Nove and since the old fucker hasn't seen fit to come around to Unseal Chew Toy, he's not accepted back into the Famiglia." Never mind the damage the Seal did to the body or years of bully has done to Tsunayoshi's self-esteem or self-image. "Seal's based off of Zero Point Breakthrough concept."

And that gets the Shark's attention, which then causes his Rain to pale at the kind of damage that has likely caused the now fifteen year old. There's a string of colorful curses in various languages. Moving to sit down on the couch, he gets comfortable and begins to do the steps that will begin his actual recovery. It's habit to use the Flame Ring and it says so much about Satan's potential that the brat never bothered to use Flame Rings when it comes to using his Flames, the brat has long since settled into being a Rainy Sky by the time the brat began unfreezing him.

It's pretty clue why the Trashy Brat worked hard to figure out that trick of Harmonizing things into existence and he does enjoy watching said Anime along with movies. He's learnt how to Harmonize the concepts he wants into his various projects and if he just so happens to create Enchanted works, well, it doesn't fucking matter, never mind the whole 'weaving' various Flames into a design that's capable of being self sustaining. Oh yes, there's a lot of supposed abilities that has had people pulling at their hair while crying out denials about what's going on before their god fucking damn eyes that his brat is good at pulling off without ever needing a Flame Ring.

Wrenching his mind away from his Trashy Brat's accomplishments and future breaking of others minds, he focuses on Harmonizing with the concepts he needs to recover from his many years being in that block of Flame ice. He becomes aware of Satan's Flames as they seem to Sense what he's doing but it's not that distracting. It's done and opens his eyes, he notices the brat being slightly half asleep but since he's done, his brat falls back to sleep.

"What happened?" His Rain asks and he scowls darkly as he recalls Yuni. "Broke a Curse, that fucking little bitch realized what Satan's purpose was in the simulations and wanted him gone, so she can plot."

"Little... You mean that Sky girl?" Squalo inquires and he snorts. "In the those fake worlds, there was a need for a Sky Arcobaleno, so one was created."

"White Bastard wasn't the actual threat in the end, bitch wanted out, wanted to actually Live outside of those simulations." It's clear that his Rain gets why they're here, why she'd be a threat to the brat in his arms. Satan's a loose end, one that needs to get put down so that the bitch can breath easier.

"The Vongola Rings, fuck! And we just walked right into that shitty ass trap!" The Shark growls and he snorts, after all, of fucking course they did, that He did. Without exposure to Satan and the Curse that was placed on him, it's hardly a surprise that of course he fucking didn't remember his shitty ass times in those Fake Worlds. It's also clear that the fake bitch has been reassured of that fact too, so she'd only target Satan.

The thought of the fake bitch brought up memories of what they learnt concerning the Arcobaleno pacifiers and the Curse that's infecting the two sets of rings, the Mare and Vongola. He's current not remembering everything to do with the Tri-ni-set but, well, it'll come to him when he gets around to reviewing his memories or talking with Satan. _Speaking of the Vongola Rings..._ "Mission for the trash back at the castle, have them start cracking open the genealogy books, the old fucker and shitty lion aren't getting away with their bullshit plans for Chew Toy."

He's seen enough of Sealed and Broken Tsunayoshi to last life times, it's time to start on cleaning up the Vongola Famiglia and to get that fucking ass Seal from the young Sky. There's nothing wrong with Tsunayoshi that the usual method won't help the teen to heal from, which also includes getting the teen the hell out of Namimori along with out of the care of Sawada Nana. Due to how the CEDEF's arrangement relationship is with the Vongola Famiglia, assassinating the shitty lion is his preferred option of removing that shit stain from not just the teen's life but from the world as a whole and the fact he doesn't need to arrange a body double is even better.

There's other relatives that can gain custody of Tsunayoshi, Satan's researched his genealogy after all. It's just a matter of figuring out which relative to approach and ensuring they feel like they are willing to do their best in regards to the teen's recovering from his long term abuse. As tempting as it is to de-age the Sky, he's pretty sure it's a little late for that and given the candidates that surround the teen, once Unsealed, there's going to be at least two, three if one included the body that's semi-possessed, Guardians who'd object to his plans of relocation, well, more like one as the teenage Rain seems the type to follow the teen at a moment's notice while the Murderous Mist's minions will have a harder time scratching out a living anywhere else.

The Lightning Brat is too young and untrained to forge anything then a minor Bond. _There's three brats living at that house. They'll need to be removed out of that house too._ He muses.

It's not long before the door opens and he meets Terashima Tomoaki for the 'first' time. "Kaito..." There's a soft sigh from the ebony haired man at the sight of him holding his sleeping son.

Time to come to an arrangement with the brat's father.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

Kaito studies the trio of kids in the room. Oh, he knows more of the Bovino Lightning then the other two, but that's hardly surprising given the nature of the Fake Worlds. "Hello, I'm Fuuta. This is Ipin and Lambo."

"Kaito, Tsunayoshi's cousin." He admits as he walks a bit more into the room, the Lightning kid has this odd look upon his face, like he's trying to remember something but it just keeps escaping his grasp. Then Lambo recovers and scowls, arms crossing while suspicion is clear upon the familiar child's face.

"I'm Dame-Tsuna's brother." And here is the staking of territory. "Lambo..." Fuuta states with a sigh, it's clear the other is use to this kind of behavior.

"That's fine." He honestly is fine with just being the teen's cousin and he's never really spent a whole lot of time with him, even when they Unseal him. "Why are you calling him that?" The blue haired Rainy Sky asks, after all, why call him that instead of Oniisan or Oniichan.

"Cause Dame-Tsuna is Dame-Tsuna." Lambo states as if it's matter of fact and he frowns. "Does he like being called that though?" He asks curiously while the other two seem incline to watch them talk, both seem to be judging him.

Lambo blinks a few times while confusion is clear upon the other's face. "I mean, there's got to be some nickname you hate to be called, right?" He asks.

"But that's what Reborn calls him! He never complains about it." Protests Lambo and he sighs, oh he knows a lot about Reborn from Varia and from rumors, then he actually en-counted the Sun.

"Does Reborn give out flattering nicknames or hurtful ones? And does complaining about it ever work with him?" Kaito asks and it's clear that Lambo scowls that the answer is yes, the self entitled Greatest Hitman has given the Lightning an unflattering nickname.

"So, maybe Tsunayoshi stopped trying because it wasn't having any effect on Reborn calling him that." He suggests when is looks like Lambo is sniffling. "Then what am I suppose to call him? Tsuna-nii?"

"Or Oniisan, even Oniichan." He offers and the Lightning child nods. "Already have someone who answers to Oniichan, so, from now on, he's Oniisan." It's a declaration said with arms crossed and a firm series of nods from the young bull themed child.

Smiling slightly, he can Feel the Acceptance from the other two kids and it's clear that he passed their collective Test. Not really sure what to make of the two, he approaches. "So, your parents came to visit Sawada-san?"

"I'm not here with my dad, Xanxus brought me over. I've been entrusted to his care." He admits and the two look rather surprised while Lambo yelps at the idea that the Wrath is visiting. "No way! Why'd he do that?! He's a scary man! And Mean!"

"It's... well, private and while I wouldn't mind mentioning it, it's kind of... hard to swallow." The almost five year old admits to the trio. "But, well, he considers me his Personal Apprentice, gave me a name too."

"But you weren't in the future." Fuuta states and he gives the older kid, who doesn't Feel like he possesses the usual Flame Nature one finds or expects to find among the Mafia. "A Curse was involved." He states simply and this seems to get Ipin's interest as she's pausing in her coloring to stare up at him.

"What know of Curses?" It's clear she understands Japanese then speaks it. "They are the desire of the caster to cause suffering and misery upon the subject the caster wishes to see harmed or ruined. They do their best to grind those under them beneath their heel as instructed. Some are meant to kill the victim but not all."

"I know you can't save anyone with a Curse or anything one, not really. After all, that's not why Curses exist or are for." He adds, after all, the Arcobaleno pacifiers are Cursed and that the supposed function of the Tri-ni-set was to ensure that the world continues to exist. _You'd think a Curse expert would know the most basic fact about them._ Kaito mentally muses to himself.

The three clear notice the emotion he speaks with and while Ipin nods, it's clear that none of the three fully understand what he's implying or why it's relevant information for them to Know. "What kind of Curse?" Lambo asks curious, clearly interested and the other two give him Looks.

"Just a Curse of Remembrance." He states simply and leaves it at that as he comes to stand at the table where they are doing their coloring. Hardly his fault if they draw their own conclusion to what kind of Curse that is.

"So, what's your favorite animal?!" Lambo asks after a few seconds. "Mine's bulls!"

"Ah, well, I'm not that choosy but, well, I do prefer Ravens and Tanuki." Both as Box Animals are unusual, particularly the Ravens, being the brainy and clever bird, they are generally considered to be 'unstable' Box Animals due to how that brainy and clever gets expressed regardless of Flame type, disobedient. Before he figured out how to modify Box Animals to develop as individuals, he usual had an Unkindness of Sky Ravens.

Yes, they were slight pains in his ass when it came to certain things but they always developed unique skills, possessed the ability to remember from previous times they've been out, and were naturally incline to telepathy as Box Animals, not that many realize that. Crows were decent but Ravens out classed their smaller relatives by a wide margin. A lot of what he wanted in Box Animals, the Ravens typically came into naturally.

As for the Tanuki, well, Sky Tanuki were masters of disguise and capable of actually talking while transformed into humans, sounding like the people they're impersonating, even managing to either get the manners down right or somehow have the people never notice the slips. Given how often he needed an adult to evade the usual questions concerning underage kids out on their own, particularly those under the age of ten, he'd always find a way to steal or create a Box Animal with that as the animal template. They are also far more mellow in temperament then most other canidae along with not as mischievous as Coyotes or Foxes, who also can end up with the ability to transform, it's fairly rare but does happen with those two canidaes.

The trio blink at his picks while Lambo looks frowns, pointing out, "But you can only have one! That's what I asked!"

"Then Ravens." He states after considering which of the two Box Animals, after all, he usually does have to modify the Tanuki so they had mental capacity to create memories, which is important when it comes to impersonating someone, got to keep track of who you interacted with and what was said after all. Ravens, for all their mischief and ideas of 'play', never need modifications to be his companions, they just lack the bulk and fur to make them good cuddle buddies is all.

"Bulls are better." Lambo states and he merely listens as Lambo rambles on about the subject, he doesn't see the point in correcting the Lightning about the fact that bulls are not an actual animal species but a gender. Given the slightly exasperated looks the other two give the almost seven year old, it's clear they know that fact as well.

"So... why Ravens?" Fuuta asks curiously. "They were scrapped as a Box Animal after all."

"Of course they were, Ravens are smart birds and there mental prowess didn't just get carried over when they are turned into Box Animals but got a boost. Which is why people had such a hard time getting them to cooperate as they weren't factoring in the fact that they're intelligence was enhanced." He explains with a roll of his eyes. "They were quick to develop their own personalities and create their own brand of Flame tricks, unlike most Box Animals, where they just obey the owner of the Box because the Box tricks the animal into accepting the Flame user as a part of itself, thus showing that Flame Ravens are self aware enough that they can question their own motives."

All three are staring at him with wide eyes with Lambo's mouth having opened up. It takes him a few seconds to realize that they were likely surprised by how much older he sounded then about the information concerning the Ravens. "One of the reasons for why Xanxus wanted me where he can see me is because I'm capable of remembering how to not just create Box Weapons but that I'd be bored. I'm already attending school but my dad didn't want me to skip grades because he's worried I'd have trouble getting along with older kids."

"How are you Dame-Tsuna's cousin?!" It's not surprising that the familiar nickname came up, it'll take time for it to be phased out. "Don't you mean Oniisan?" He gently reminds the Lightning, who blinks before rephrasing the question, although without that exact same emotion as before, "How are you Oniisan's cousin?"

"Well, for one, I've never been Flame Sealed and for another, I haven't suffered through years of bullying like my cousin clearly has." Is Kaito's answer to that question. "What's your Flame?" Lambo demands.

"Rainy Sky." There's a bit of surprise but that might be more to do with the Rain portion of his Flame Nature then his Sky Flame. Holding up a hand with his palm facing the ceiling, he manifests his orange with hints of blue Flame, it slowly pools up into the air from his palm, creating a ball of Flames. He focuses on how he wants the colors to move about and a touch more sluggish then he's use to, his Flames do begins to obey his wishes.

For a minute, the Flame ball is the focus of anyone's attention within the room. Feeling kind of exhausted, he begins to call his Flames back within and once back within his skin, he closes his hand and then moves to lean a bit on the table, beginning to work on his breathing. "Wow..." Lambo is clearly impressed by what he did while the other two both seem to nod, although there's a bit of a more calculating Feel from the Sun girl but, well, that's to be expected, really, after all, he doesn't have Flame Bonded.

"You can do that at your age and without a Flame Ring?" Fuuta muses, it's clearly just him thinking out loud then actually asking a question. He did just display that he could, after all.

"Got memories." Is his answer and that's true, he remembers how he trained himself in using his own Flames. The blue hair child knew that letting anyone know he was Flame Active was a Bad Idea, things have changed since then and he's more then capable and confident in being able to defend himself, never mind involving Xanxus getting involved on his behalf.

A large part of Flame training is more about coming to terms with being able to Use one's Flame and it won't cause you Harm, the physical conditioning is still important but, well, for him, it's always been about his mental conditioning then physical. It kind of holds true outside of the simulated worlds but, that might have something to do with his Sky Nature's Harmony then it being an actual thing. It won't be hard for him to speed up his physical conditioning and keeping it from degrading either, Harmony is a very interesting concept that comes naturally to him.

"What Apprentice name Xanxus give?" Ipin inquires politely and he can't help but make a face. "That bad huh?" Fuuta asks. "That humiliating?" Asks Lambo nearly at the same time as Fuuta.

"Satan. He Named me Satan." He admits with a pout and sigh, after all, it doesn't really suit him as far as he's concerned. _Should have saved that Name for an ambitious Rain mook ranking up out of the mook pool._ Kaito thinks to himself.

"Why?!" Lambo howls and he tries to recall if Blue Exorcist is out at this point in time. "Some manga got... Or will be? Well, either way it does in up getting adapted into an anime, the central character is a half-demon who's got control over these special flames that he inherits from the ruler of the home that all demons come from, Satan. Got the Name because I can have my Flames come out looking more blue then orange." And because of the Flame horns, it's mostly because of those Flame horns.

"But there's plenty of Rain users out there." Fuuta points out. "Yea! So why'd you get the cool name?!" Lambo demands.

"Well, you can always take your complains to Xanxus, but I doubt he'll listen, he never did when I made those same points." The almost five year old admits and it's clear from the slight body shutter that Lambo wasn't going to be doing that. He pauses and cocks his head as his gazes at the floor.

"Huh?" Lambo wonders a minute later, but that's not surprising, after all, it seems that Xanxus did get Nana to sign the papers, it wouldn't take much to get Tsunayoshi to sign the documents, the promise that it'll remove him from the position of being the Tenth Don pretty much grantees it plus the releasing of the Seal pretty much Seals the documents, after all, he's pretty sure that they are recording the Unsealing as evidence as to the fact that Tsunayoshi had been kicked out of the Famiglia and Sealed upon going Active.

"Tsuna!" He shakes his head as a slight wave of Tsunayoshi's Flame radiates out, there's more pulses of it. _Really want to show off the damage, huh?_ Kaito thinks to himself and then feels another Sky that isn't Xanxus reaching out to calm the heart of the pulse.

Soon enough, he Feels Xanxus take hold of both the other Sky and Tsunayoshi's Flame, beginning to Harmonize the concepts into his cousin's 'Distress yet Joyful at Finally being Totally Free' Sky Flame. The Flame pulsing dies down in intensity and the others in the room, he takes a few seconds to stare at them. "That would be cousin's Sky Flame being Unsealed. It how Tsunayoshi is getting out of being Don, after all, now the Ninth can't reverse his having kicked him out of the Vongola Famiglia when he went Active when he was younger but returning him to the fold by coming by and Unsealing him."

"Kicked... out? But... He's first in line!" Fuuta states and he raises an eyebrow at hearing that.

"Not really, there's tons and tons of people related to the Second Don along with a few cousins related to the First and Second leaders of Vongola." He explains slowly. "Only reason Tsunayoshi was considered first has to do with both the Ninth and the External Advisor wanting him to be the Tenth and were very willing to do Anything to make it Happen. After all, the Ninth did just rigged the fight between the Varia and you all by issuing orders and making death threats towards Xanxus' Officers."

"He was order to lose?!" Fuuta realizes and he corrects the kid, "More like, ordered them to limit themselves to whatever skill level a bunch of civilians and minor Mafioso were able to fight at. The word 'test' kept being used by the Ninth but, well, you and the rest of the underworld were told or led to believe differently, huh?"

"So, disguised order to lose." Fuuta states and he nods. "Yea, plus the whole, adopted kid also means he's not in direct line of succession either. Not sure if the Ninth ever did the Mist trick to find out how distantly related Xanxus is to any of the previous Dons."

"He's got an actual claim?" Fuuta asks and he nods, it's not like it ultimately matters. "Plenty of unacknowledged bastards got around to having families and/or bastards themselves, but, there's a registered blood connection concerning Xanxus' mom and an unacknowledged yet distant line with his sperm donor."

"So, he's what, a cousin of the Ninth's?" Fuuta asks. "Something like a fifth cousin on from the mother's side."

"So, should we head downstairs? I mean, both Ipin and Lambo already have." He inquires and it's then that the older boy who Feels of a Flame Nature that's outside of the norm realizes he's right, the bedroom door is not fully closed.

"My Rankings..." Fuuta trails off and he moves to give the older boy a comforting pat. "Think of it this way, if the Ninth was willing to rig a Tradition like a Ring Battle, how low do you think he'd sink to ensure that my cousin was to be the Tenth Don of the Vongola Famiglia?"

Fuuta then pales at the realization of how little the Ninth cares about anything in regards to what he wishes to happen in order to fulfill his Goal. "Largest and most powerful Mafia Family is a Thing, remember?" He gently reminds the other boy.

"It's just... Tsuna-nii..." Fuuta trails off and he nods in understanding. "Yea, he's a good nature person when all is said and done. He never desired to be Sealed because those two men had Plans concerning him."

It takes Fuuta a minute or two to recover from the shock of that realization concerning the fact that there's likely more going on when it comes to these Ranking of Fuuta's then even he'd known.

 **o - v = Y = v - o**

The dead Raven is one that is from a local zoo. Kaito moves the completed Box Weapon onto the dead body and activates it, feeding his Flames into the Flame tech device. Within seconds, the dead body is engulfed in orange with tinted blue Flames, which are then pulled into the device and it takes a good ten minutes before the device finishes assimilating the remains of the Raven. Picking up the filled Box Weapon, he activates it and feels it tug at his Flames, a Sky Raven is created from the Box.

 _"Hello, hope we'll have a fun together."_ He thinks to the Raven and the large black corvus puffs out its feathers. The young Sky can feel the Raven taking in its surroundings while also seems to be getting a Feel for him.

A handful of minutes pass before the Raven's feather sleek and takes to the air, it clearly spotted something it wanted to investigate on a shelf. He's content to sit back and watch the Sky Raven's antics. It amuses him that the Flame bird isn't taking the fact that there's a Mist Ward on the item in question stop it from its desire to examine the item in question with beak or claw.

 _"I want it!"_ The Raven declares upon the arrival of the Mist in question. The Mist, Cyrus, seems startled by that declaration, it seems that Cyrus picked up that mental communication as the Mist looks at him.

"You had your chance to get it, the owner's here to claim it." He points out verbally and in Old Norse, it seems a fitting language to use. This causes the Raven to glare at Cyrus but the Mist holds their ground and stares at the bird.

It's hardly that surprising that it's the Raven who relents, after all, there's more stuff for the Raven to try for. "I thought you're a Sky." Comments Cyrus as they pick up the tin container that likely contains chocolate for the women issue that they are suffering from.

"I am. Box Animal." He states in the same language that Cyrus spoke in, which is French. He uncovers the container in question and the Mist glances between the Box and the Sky Raven, who's gotten into someone's secret stash of jerky.

Even he can tell that there's gears turning in Cyrus' head. "Talk with Boss, he's the one who's going to decide if they're a worthwhile investment." He tells the Mist, given what happened to Levi when the Lightning Officer almost has an 'accident' that could have maimed him, everyone had known that Xanxus was interested in him but with what happened to Levi, they now know the Varia Sky is protective as all fucking hell where he's concerned.

Which means that, as that happening, the Wrath is overseeing the Lightning Division, which is hardly a new occurrence as Levi has always been someone to be avoided, after all, deaths of promising young Lightnings within his Division were a thing and nobody can really do anything about given how Varia is structured along with Xanxus being trapped in Flame ice and Squalo maintaining he's only the temporary head. It's going to be a while before there's going to be a Lightning Officer, same with the Cloud Division but for different reasons. The Cloud Division doesn't yet have a permanent Officer but there's Squad Leaders filling the duties until one of them actually takes the spot.

The reason for creating Box Animals gets priority because Xanxus wants therapy dogs to help the Lightnings deal with their crappy Flame training. Given the population of felines about the Varia Castle, particularly large members of the felidae are deadly enough to kill a full grown man, never mind how some of them had been Altered, curacy of the bored Mists of the Varia, and can kill even Flame Active humans. Given how if the body is destroyed, it doesn't mean actual death for the Flame Animal, wait for the cool-down and then re-summon the Box Animal in question.

 _Those Box Animals won't need any special modifications._ He muses to himself. The common Flame Tech will be enough for the creation of those therapy dogs. _But first..._

With Cyrus gone and he's sure that the Mist is Gone, he pulls out the other, almost completed Box Weapon. With ease, he places it over the empty Box over the Raven's own and begins to process of transferring the mental observations that the previous Box did upon assimilating the Raven, the date is now getting translated into a program which is going into the empty Box's own programing, yes he knows how to write the program using computers but this way was quicker and it'll mean that Xanxus will be able to feel more emotional secure with a Box Animal capable of providing a strong base of emotional support.

He'd been tempted to inquire around for dead Tanuki among the zoos but decided against it, after all, while it would be symbolic gesture, he knows Xanxus' preferences for felines, particularly hybrids felidae. Studying the still processing empty Box Weapon, he hopes that the modification he made to it will be enough, he really doesn't want to actually kill the white Liger after all, not when it's still got a good number of years to go. His interest in getting a dead Raven isn't all that surprising after all, he's had an Unkindness of them before, much to Xanxus' amusement given their antics and their clear intent on preening Xanxan's hair decorations did seem to get a soft smile from the prickly Sky.

 _"Tired."_ Claims the Raven as it comes to perch upon his shoulder, a glance towards the shelf and then towards the floor shows that some jerky didn't end up in the Raven's stomach. _"What do you expect, you ate a good chunk of that jerky."_ He mentally reminds the gluttonous bird in a teasing yet gentle manner.

The bird is just so large and he's five years old, it's unsurprising that the Raven takes up almost all of his shoulder space. "Just wait a bit longer before returning to the Box, ok? It's doing something and you'll get a playmate when all is said and done." He murmurs in Old Norse to the Raven.

He can Feel the Raven checking him over, to see if he's lying but he's not. If all goes as planned, there's going to be another Box Animal around the castle. _"Not another bird."_ The slightly tired Raven counters, reading his thoughts.

He imagines the white Liger and can Feel the Raven's interest in the concept of a Sky Liger before it's clear that it's already beginning to mentally plot on how best to tease such a beast. The matter of next Box Animal being something other then a bird is pushed aside, it's not being forgotten about though. For the next little while, the pair kind of just... mentally mesh in a lazy manner.

Then they sense a Red/Storm and they pull themselves from each other, easily untangling from each other before Belphegor gets within ten feet of the door. The Raven glides off his shoulder but sticks close, head already turned towards the door. Kaito begins stretching his body as he realizes that it's gotten kind of sore while turning to the door as well.

The door glides open silently and when the Prince notices that neither of them are unaware of his approach, the Storm Officer alters his manner with his trademark laughter and gracefully glides into the room, hidden eyes taking in the sides of the storage room. "A common Raven? The peasant chose a Raven? Really?" The language is Mexican Spanish.

"I've had Unkindness of them before." He states in a mild tone. "My most common modification to Box Animals came about because of them."

It's not that he doesn't know that Bel is unstable, it's that the other doesn't do much to curtail the blood-lust that's generally lurking within. The Storm is Smart, smarter then others give him credit for and more then capable of being patient when there trade off will be a masterwork of mayhem with a dose of confusion over what happened. There's been some run ins with the Storm Officer long before Xanxus began to become someone he wanted in his life and had known, from the first encounter that if the Prince the Ripper had wanted to, the other would have caught him and gotten whatever the other wanted out of him. Fearing the Storm was just common sense as far as he's concerned but it's a fear that he's done his best to channel into caution when dealing with the other.

Not even Xanxus' interest in him means much if there's a sharp alteration within Belphegor and the other is looking to state that blood-lust within himself, all within range were fair game. Only way to truly earn respect is being able to prove their ability to not windup dead when that happens, which he isn't looking forward to but knows that it's going to happen. "And what modification is that, peasant?"

"Increased mental capacity, as in, giving your Box Animal the agency to act independent of you if you are out of the picture and can't give them orders." The Rainy Sky replies. "Take this Raven for example, if someone were to teach it the rules of chess and it'll be a master of the game in no time, it'll grow bored once it's always winning or if there isn't something in it for it, but it'll always remember the game it was taught."

The Sky Raven puffs out its chest at the praise while Belphegor's eyes stay on him before regarding the pleased bird. "We'll just have to see if that claim is true, peasant." The Storm Officer states and the Raven's feathers sleek and there's a angry caw at the clear disbelief of its intelligence.

"Go on, learn the game and see how he likes not winning after the second game." He states in Old Norse and with that, the Raven flies at the Storm Officer, who puts up an arm, which the Raven lands on. There's a slight pull on the Storm's face, it seems that Belphegor is picking up some of the emotions that the Sky Raven is giving off.

"Hm, like a Prince will lose to a simple black bird." The pair leave and he can Sense the determination from the Sky Raven from their connection. "Pride cometh before the fall." Kaito murmurs with a smirk now that he's alone in the storage room, allowing himself to feel smug along with satisfied, after all, this isn't the first time Prince the Ripper has underestimated Flame Ravens and this will keep the Storm from circling around him, mentally picking him apart along with getting an idea of what he's capable and preparing accordingly for that fateful encounter.

Glancing at the jerky that's laying about the shelves and the floor, he shakes his head at the sight. Looking back at the Box Weapons, it seems that the transfer finished at some point, likely sometime when he'd been just mind meshing with the Raven and having that conversation with Xanxus' Storm. Taking the empty Box from the Raven's own, he pockets the Raven while using a bit of Harmony to have the empty Box get store with his Sky Flame, if someone pick pockets the Raven's Box from him, well, they'll come to regret that decision as the mischievous bird Knows who's a member of its Unkindness and it won't be the Varia assassin or mook.

Turning off the light, he heads for where the white Liger likes to lounge. Kaito is hoping he doesn't have to hunt down the Liger, after all, he wants to present the modified Flame Liger to Xanxus tonight, after supper.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

"I think I'll get Tsunayoshi a Tanuki for a Box Animal." Satan muses as they are the only ones in the room. He's not pleased by this Tournament that Kawahira is pushing forward with, never mind the presence of both the Vindice and the recovering cousin of his Apprentice but it's their best shot to get the fucking bastard.

"Found one already, brat?" He inquires and the Rainy Sky hums. "Yea, there's some at the local zoo. Easier to get at and they trust people more."

The modification when it came to filling a Box Weapon meant to hold animals is a touch more demanding, as what happened when Satan got a sample from the white Liger that Bester had been made from in the Fake World of the Future. The damage done to the Liger had healed minutes after the Box finished gathering and assimilating the sample. If not for how good Satan is with his Flames, the Liger would have been more upset as would the other feline inhabitants.

The brat has fixed it as the next two Box Animals didn't even notice the samples getting gathered, so yes, his Sun Officer has their male Peacock and his Storm has his Mink, both with enhanced intelligence and telepathic bonding as Satan wanted to be sure that the ability to grant that would come through. So yes, the two Officers are adapting to the fact that their Box Animals are going to develop personalities of their own along with actually looking like the animals they are based off of then compared to the Fake Future. Bel's pride in regards to his losses at chess to Satan's Raven seem to be soothed and the Storm is busy training the Storm Mink to do useful tricks and learning to work with the mammal.

Which brings up the fact that the Fake Future's Box Animals had degraded into cartoonish looking animals and Xanxus wonders if it had to do with the fake bitch taking control of those simulation worlds. For all that Yuni is an old concept that's been created time and again, the fake bitch is fucking young and likely viewed those Fake Worlds as her's to do with as she saw fit, using her Flame to ensure that as well. It really, in the end, wasn't ultimately the Trashy Brat's responsibility to do anything about the fake child, after all, the fake bitch came from the Sky Pacifier and the etching of the various holders' Will to live even though they accepted their fate to die.

Which brought him full circle about the source of his bad mood, fuck. "Fuck." And he glares at bit at the window.

"She's going to be here, not right away but before the end." Satan states and he doesn't like that thought of seeing her, let alone for the fake bitch to get a good, clear look at Satan. "Not sure why, though, not when Tsunayoshi capable of being tapped for the position."

That's another reason to be pissed with Kawahira, the man is involving someone he's extended his protection onto for no god damn reason. "Get that icer ready." He states and Satan looks a bit startled but nods in acceptance. "Sure."

"Keep your Flame Rings with you." He knows Satan and the young Sky scowls at the reminder, Satan doesn't like rings as they are a common accessory on men with ties to organized crime. "Fine." The Rainy Sky finally lets out and he's satisfied with that, knowing that the kid will.

It's not long before Bester ver. 2 comes out and soaks up all his attention like the royal feline that the half breed is. Satan is currently the only one he's able to get a restful, full night sleep when forced into sharing a room and there's likely a shit ton of reasons for how that came about. The Raven is already out and is likely thrashing the Bratty Prince in whatever game his Storm has them playing. The Sky Raven will be joining them in the room once the bird is bored and Bel can't bribe the bird to its satisfaction to keep playing.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

The so called tournament is coming to an end, it's not the end that Kawahira likely expected nor the one that Yuni likely wanted either. Still there's something that needs to be addressed and with Xanxus treating Dino's busted knees with Tsunayoshi hanging about, it's clear that both Dino and his cousin remained friends, regardless of the fact that his cousin's status as an Independent Sky due to the actions of two possessive and willfully delusional men. The drama isn't done and now, he steps and can Sense his Raven finding a decent perch.

"That's not the end of it as yet, Kawahira." He states and everyone seems to blink, suddenly Aware of his presence. "After all, the Curse on the pacifiers need to be removed as well, to put a true end to the era of robbing others of their Flames."

"I must say that I'm surprised to see you." The man states and he gives the man a smile. It's clear that the Mist's eyes flicker towards Yuni, who he can Feel is shocked at his appearance and then Dismayed.

"You picked the best you could find, you pretty much said as much yourself." And there's a spike from the created Sky as she realizes what he Means by that. "You Cursed me, Curse of Remembrance."

"I should have put more effort into it, if it could be Broken so easily." The white haired Mist muses. "Well, congratulations on coming out that sane."

He snorts and replies, "No thanks to you but the thing is, you seem to have developed a rather unhealthy habit, Kawahira and it's clear that you need refresher on the subject matter." He moves a few feet closer before coming to a stop and then circles a fourth of the way around the man, taking note of the Feel of the spot as he speaks.

"I'm old brat, I've forgotten more about using Flames then you ever learnt in the first place." Kawahira scuffs. "There's nothing you humans can teach me in regards to Flames."

"It's good to know that you accept that you're memory is faulty but it seems that you are allowing your pride to blind you to the simplest lessons someone learns as a beginner." Kaito is moving in a circle and closing in, there's the Perfect Spot about five feet from the man. "When was the last time you examined the other parts of the Tri-ni-set?"

"The Arobaleno pacifiers are under my direction concern." Kawahira snaps, a sore subject. "Sepira was the one to find homes for the two sets of Rings. If there's anything wrong with them, then it's caused by humans."

He can't help but chuckle at the clear display of Stupid and willful Ignorance on display, but then, it took him how long to connect the dots between the Vongola Rings spreading a Curse to the Arcobaleno pacifiers? "There's something wrong with the Rings?" It's not that surprising that Byakuran showed up in Yuni's company to watch the Rainbow Battles.

"Nothing you human's aren't responsible for." States the man as he gets at the Perfect Spot. "Voi! Shut your shitty mouth! If your so concern about this fucked up system, then maybe you should stop showing your Stupid and listen to what the Trashy Brat has to say!"

There's a lot of chatter going on but he's very much aware that the Vindice are still here, still listening, and he'd be surprise if some of those members aren't already getting a general idea of what he's implying, after all, they've been hanging around for decades and thus have plenty of time to study the subject of Cursing. Calling the Flame Icer from its storage within his Flames with his hands in his pockets and his pose is as relax as he can make it while, he feels the chilly metal and the gems on the palms of both of his hands, it begins to draw heat and his Flames, powering up.

Kawahira's attention isn't fully on him and he can already feel the beginning stages of Hyper Dying Will Mode settle on him as he's developing a narrow vision. His connection with his Raven means that the Box Animal knows to be more alert and watchful on his fellow Unkindness member's behalf. The only voice he focuses on is his target's, all others are not important.

"Then how is it my fault that there's something wrong with the two sets of Rings?" His target asks and he gives the other a smirk as he replies in a smug tone, "Your Curse on the Arcobaleno pacifiers is tainting your beloved Tri-ni-set as the stolen Flames being forcefully harvested from the Arcobaleno members spread up throughout it, which means that the wearers of the Rings are getting influence second hand from the Curse you set into the system."

"Your system has been shit the moment you set a Curse on those pacifiers and never got off your lazy, Dumb as fuck ass to find a better solution." Kaito states as he pulls out his hands, Feeling that it's getting close to Time to ice the target. Kawahira is shock still for a few seconds but gets enraged at the Truth of that statement.

As the Mist begins to move a hand, he's already has his Flame horns up as his Flames light up on the palms of his hands. Tranquility relaxing time for him while Harmony meaning he's going to be getting the first attack in, which is the final attack as the Flame Icers on the palms of his hands help focus the Zero Point Breakthrough ice at the head first and goes down from there.

 **_ w ) = A - M - A = ( w _**

A five year old entering into Hyper Dying Will Mode is a clear shock to those around him, the fact that the Flames form a pair of horns instead of a single ball of Sky Flame on the forehead, never mind the way the Flames seem more blue then orange. _Then again, his language could be just as shocking as the HDWM._ Xanxus muses to himself.

It hardly surprises him that Satan started with the head, the Rainy Sky knows how to end a fight as quickly as possible without killing anyone. "What have you been teaching him?!" Tsunayoshi exclaims and he chuckles, it's rather amusing that it's to be accused of that when the Trashy Brat came up with all his moves long before the brat decided he liked having him around.

"Fucking nothing concerning Flames and their usage." He states. "Fucking Christ, he's the one who's taught me how to heal using Sky Flame among other nifty tricks."

"Also, here. He figured you could use a cuddle buddy." Xanxus pulls out the Tanuki Box Animal and the teen automatically catches the box. "Not a Lion, not a feline of any kind."

The younger Sky looks at the Box and glancing at Dino, the fifteen year old pushes some of his Sky Flame into the Box and out comes the Tanuki, which is in Tsunayoshi's arms and seems content with being held.

"A Tanuki?!" Tsunayoshi is clearly surprised at the animal while Dino seems to chuckle and he returns to watching the artistic license Satan is doing with the Flame ice, it's simple yet tasteful, more then capable of them transporting it, but his Apprentice does something that frosts the surface of the Flame ice before exiting out of HDWM. "He... frosted the surface?"

"Hmm..." Which means that the brat felt it's needed. Then a black shape moves and lands on the point of the Flame ice.

 _Oh._ He realizes what the brat did and smirks, feeling a thrill of pride at what Satan did. The white bastard walks over and then taps the Flame ice before placing the palm of his hand on it, clearly marveling at the simple fact that he could without getting harmed.

"Weren't Flame Ravens disconnected and destroyed because they were considered uncontrollable?" Dino inquires and he snorts. "Flame Ravens kept their intelligence and independence, had their own opinions and capable of Learning."

He's been around Sky Ravens and the birds did grow on you, particularly when they decided you were Theirs. _Clouds, the lot of them._ Xanxus thinks fondly.

"That sounds pretty familiar..." Tsunayoshi admits and he notices the teenager looking at Kyoya's direction and the Cloud is looking up at the Raven before looking down at Satan, he'd bet there's a calculating look in those eyes while there's a tiny yellow puff ball of a bird that's settled on the Cloud's shoulder. Then the Tanuki decides it wants the Sky's attention and gives Tsunayoshi's chin a lick, causing a sharp yelp to come out of the teen and as the Tanuki gets dropped out of the arms, it transforms into a copy of Kyoya, which causes the teen to yelp and look between the Tanuki and then at the actual Cloud.

He catches Dino's eyes widening and glancing at him with a questioning look. "Stories have Japanese Foxes and Raccoon Dogs transforming into people and other things, horse." Xanxus reminds the young Don in Sicilian.

It's not long before the Cloud notices the transformed Tanuki, who looks far more cheerful the the Cloud normal does and waves cheekily at the now approaching Cloud. "Herbivore..." It seems to echo in the crowd and there's a few now noticing the pair of 'Demon' Prefects.

"Hibari-san!" Tsunayoshi stammers out as the Cloud gets within ten feet and by the time the Cloud is within five, the Tanuki transforms yet again, taking on the appearance of the so called Hibird. This clearly startles the Cloud as the Tanuki flies about, soon the actual Hibird does the same, the two circling over the Cloud's head.

"Mischief makers?" Dino inquires and he snorts, "Still a Box Animal." Which means that the Tanuki's actions are influence by Tsunayoshi, which means that the teen does have an interest in Courting the Cloud or just wanting to be on better terms with the Territorial Cloud.

The blond Sky glances at the teen and then at Kyoya a few times before drawing his own conclusions. The Tanuki gets bore and flies to Tsunayoshi, the teen already has his arms out, catching the Tanuki with ease and the beast moves to snuggle into the teenage Sky's chest, which means doesn't seem to mind. There's a slight look of amazement and it's not long before Tsunayoshi is scratching along the beast's jaw.

Kyoya suddenly doesn't have Tsunayoshi's attention and yet, the Cloud scowls at the Tanuki, clearly wanting to bite the Box Animal to death. "Control it better." Which reminds the teenager that the Cloud's presence before the Cloud stalks off before Tsunayoshi manages to stammer out a reply.

"Fufufufu... Another little troublemaker, Tsuna?" There's a slight startle from Dino but neither Tsunayoshi and himself were caught unaware, the Tanuki likely warning his owner. "Just a gift from my cousin."

There's a slight pout on the illusion that's wrapped around the girl's face. "And Lambo isn't a troublemaker, Mukuro." Gently rebuffs the Mist's Sky.

The two Mists had Bonded with Tsunayoshi as had the Rain brat while there's a minor Bond between the Lightning child and Tsunayoshi, which shouldn't have been that surprising. "Going to name this one Natsu as well?" Dino asks curiously.

Bored of the conversation, he spies a group around Satan but it's nothing the brat isn't capable of handling, after all, Luss is there and likely checked the kid over to be sure that he's fine. So he keeps looking around, he spies various groups mingling, likely already gossiping on whatever training regiment he's got the brat on. Squalo is talking with that Rain brat while the Boxing trash is talking with the Lightning he brought along for this battle. The fake bitch isn't sure what to make of any of this, after all, for all that she's got the reasoning capabilities of her current age, her whole life experiences are Fake and likely had varied wildly or didn't exist at all.

Which gives him an idea of how to deal with her, in actually. After all, he doubts anyone will think anything of it given the lack of information concerning the Curse and how it would affect her. What becomes of her as time passes, well, not his problem after that.

 **The End!**


End file.
